by Elaine Durbach
NJJN Bureau Chief/Central

July 3, 2008

Over the years, Rabbi Mordechai Kanelsky and his wife, Shterney, have seen the couples taking part in their annual mass weddings become a little more established and comfortable, as the Russian immigrants have found their feet in this country. But few, they agreed, could afford a celebration as lavish as the one laid on by Bris Avrohom, the Chabad-based organization the couple leads.

The shared wedding this past Sunday, June 29, was the 23rd staged by the couple. With 10 pairs of newlyweds from around the region, it wasn’t their largest — they have had as many as 20 couples in past years — but the ceremony held in the back garden of their Hillside home and the reception held afterward in the hall at Bris Avrohom’s Congregation Shomrei Torah Ohel Yosef Yitzchok were just as emotional and festive as ever.

Combined with the dedication of Bris Avrohom’s new state-of-the-art mikva, the event drew additional community members and local dignitaries, in addition to the couples’ friends and family members.

Rabbi Kanelsky pointed out afterward that despite the looming clouds and intense heat, the rain held off until everyone was safely inside for the reception. “Never, not once in 23 years, has it rained during the ceremony,” he said, declaring that as a sure sign of divine favor.

In the past, in addition to providing the pre-ceremony buffet, the officiating rabbis, the accoutrements for the individual huppa ceremonies, and the dinner-dance afterward, the organization also provided wedding dresses gratis to those brides who wanted them. This year, Shterney Kanelsky said, all the brides had their own dresses.

All the couples had already had civil marriage ceremonies — some decades ago in the Soviet Union, others more recently in the United States. But for one reason or another, none had been able to have a religious wedding under a huppa before.

At the reception following the ceremony, each of the couples received gifts, Shabbat candlesticks, a Kiddush cup, a siddur, tefillin, and a five-volume Humash in Russian and Hebrew. Each of the 10 grooms gave a speech expressing their gratitude and describing what the event meant to them and their spouses.

One said that he and his wife were about to have such a ceremony 10 years ago at his father’s urging, but his father died suddenly the night before the wedding. Even after that, circumstances prevented them from going ahead with it. Now, a deca

de later, he said, he was deeply grateful to be able to honor his father’s wishes.

Marsha Gornaya and Alex Rozenblit met in Brooklyn and have been together for 13 years. They had a civil wedding ceremony this past April — but gladly grasped this chance to have a wedding filled with Yiddishkeit.

Tsitsiliya and Emanuel Fooks got married 35 years ago in Moldova and came to this country in 1993. The couple, who live in Brooklyn, have two grown sons — one a nurse, the other becoming a doctor. Talking about the ceremony, and the chance to use the new mikva, the white-haired bride said it had been an amazing experience. “I dreamed of doing this all my life,” she said.

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